Darren Whitehead, teaching pastor and leader of Next Gen Ministries at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, teamed with his fellow Aussie Jon Tyson, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in New York City, to discuss spiritual formation–and counter-formation.
Darren is in a suburb at a megachurch; Jon is in a city at a church plant. “If we weren’t friends, we’d be blogging against each other.” But they’ve been friends for 20+ years, when they met at a camp in Australia.
Formation and Counter-Formation
The central purpose of the church is to form people into the image of Jesus. If you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter where you’re located. Before you know how to form people, you have to know how the culture is forming people. Every culture forms you in its story. The American gods are the mall, the “temple of worship” at sporting events, and the story of “getting more with comfort.” That’s the defining narrative: you are special and you have the right to gain material blessings.
Romans was written to people who, everywhere they walked, saw graven idols of Caesar and passed the Colosseum and guilds where even to do your work involved worship of idols; what does Romans 12:1, 2 mean in that context?
Each cultural story is enshrined in institutions that take that story and enable that story to be embodied in the culture. e.g., colleges essentially give a secular mindset.
Then these become enshrined in mediums: e.g., you have a personal car, a personal cell phone, which enable individualism.
This is how you become you. Why did you wear the clothes you’re wearing? They express your role in the story.
This is why Americans say they believe in God but are barely discernible from the culture. We need to reform people with the story of the gospel.
The Future & What We Imagine
My 3-year-old daughter dreamed about Elmo, the Sesame Street character. I realized she’s dreaming about not her own characters but about someone else’s. Her imagination has been “taken captive” by the world, in that sense.
If God gave people everything they ever dreamed of, what would that be? More money. Finding a great spouse. Good-looking children who are athletically gifted, academically strong, respectful. A nice home. A car that won’t break down. People who don’t go to church have the same dreams; have our imaginations been taken captive by the world?
In Ephesians 3, Paul is talking about “God doing immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine,” and we don’t know what to ask for or what to imagine. What to do?
The future of the church is in how willing we are to be counter-formed by the story of God, the full view of Gospel, so it unleashes in us “kingdom imagination.”
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